The Fascist Bombing of Madrid

Last week on Maps Mania I wrote about the Fascist aerial bombing of Barcelona in the 1930's. Barcelona was not the only Spanish city which suffered from this new devastating aerial bombardment tactic. The capital Madrid also suffered from massive aerial and artillery bombardment during the Civil War of 1936-1939.

In Madrid Hitler's Condor Legion and Mussolini's Aviazione Legionaria tried out the weapons and tactics that they would go on to employ on an even greater scale in World War II. In the second World War London and Coventry would suffer a similar campaign of aerial bombardment by the Nazis. The allies would also go on to copy the tactic, for example in the blanket bombing of civilians in Dresden.

Madrid Bombed 1936-39 is a map visualizing the damage caused by the Fascist bombing of Madrid. The map was created from documentary evidence of buildings which were damaged by bombs during the bombing campaign.

At the moment there is no interactive version of the map. However you can download and print out the Madrid map if you want to study it in more detail. An interactive version of the map and a database of damaged / destroyed buildings is in the pipeline.

There is an interactive map of the bombs dropped by the Fascists on Barcelona during the Civil War. 800 Days Under Bombs includes an interactive map which shows where fascist bombs were dropped on the Catalan city. The map also shows the location of the air raid shelters built in response to the air attacks.